Well, hello everyone, it’s time for another dispatch from the Hanrahan household. We hope you are well in whatever corner of the world this letter finds you. This year we’ve settled in on our small acreage near Maleny. We hope at least some of you can visit in the years to come.
It was a big move from western NSW, but what a wonderful change to find ourselves – after these last years – surrounded by green fields and fat cattle; well, that was until the second half when the big dry set in. But the locals told us it would start raining at Christmas and lo and behold it did – not a minute too soon.
JH believes the best way to get to know people in a new town is to join a few societies – get involved. Big mistake! Within months he was the the secretary of three of them. Amanda, as you all know, likes to keep a lower profile. She kept up with her music and the garden, and has found a few fellowtravellers on the Range.
James Junior and Elizabeth were married in July, at the Manor, if you please – they made such a lovely couple – they even had a spread in the Range News! (Any decade now they’ll be calling us locals!) No sound of pattering feet yet, though, on any front.
What a business Hanrahan’s societies have proved to be! You’d think in a town like this everyone would get on with each other. Far from it. When JH joined up he was looking to make friends but instead he’s found himself involved in pitch battles! Some of these people stoop so low in their determination to get their own way that they’ll write letters to ASIC, and Canberra, if you please, demanding official enquiries into the meeting procedures of the volunteer landcare groups! Talk about Freedom of Information! You wouldn’t believe it if you saw it on television. You know how it is, though, the further people are from real power the more vicious and petty they get. These days JH has to be careful which side of the street he walks on.
Our Declan is back in Australia this year. Bringing a first from Cambridge! He’s found a position at the Australian. We should get him up to do a feature on things around here! Maleny is, of course, the town that had the big battle against Woolies a few years ago. Well, we’re here to tell you the big ugly thing is there now, right next to the creek in the middle of the town. Most locals still won’t shop there, but a lot of newcomers do – people who think milk comes off a shelf and meat from a fridge and who’ve never seen the devastation the Big Two wreak on farmers with their restrictive pricing.
Through the string quartet Amanda got involved with certain women engaged in a little civil disobedience. They had wine and cheese nights wrapping Woolies flyers and sending them back using the company’s own freepost address, thousands at a time. They’re not giving up! If you can’t take a stand in your own backyard, what can you do?
Just after we arrived we had a letter from Council telling us they were going to dig up the front paddock for a pipeline. Apparently the plan is to pump the water that’s already flowed through town back up the hill again, and charge people for the pleasure of it. Someone needs to tell them about this little thing called gravity.
Say what you like, Maleny’s not Deniliquin. But that’s all from us. We hope to get about some in the new year. You never know, you might find us on your doorstep clutching a bottle, ready for another night of saving the world. ‘Slayavallich’ (Happy New Year) as they say back in the old country.
James and Amanda Hanrahan, December ’09.
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